A fun roundtable Q&A with our 2025 Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy® Award-winning product team.
Our original flagship product and the post-production industry’s pioneering VFX plugin — Continuum — was honored last week with a prestigious Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy® Award in sunny Los Angeles. The achievement caps off a 30-year journey from modest beginnings.
We chatted with Boris Yamnitsky, Boris FX’s CEO, founder, and creator of Continuum — along with fellow Continuum team members and Emmy Award winners — to find out what the recognition means, what it was like at the ceremony, and what users can look forward to in the future.
Boris Yamnitsky accepts the Emmy for the development of Boris FX Continuum at the 77th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision for Television Academy/AP Images)
But first, let’s get to know Peter McAuley, Jason Clement, and Mike Escola a little better.
Peter is Continuum's Senior Product Manager and has been with Boris FX since 1999. He's deeply involved in every aspect of Continuum, from the initial design to the final release of the software as a product, apart from writing the actual code under the hood, which is handled by a seasoned team of top-level scientists and engineers.
Jason is the Lead Engineer on the Continuum, coordinating with product management, engineering, quality assurance, and support teams on all aspects of the plugin’s product design and implementation.
Mike is Boris FX’s Release Engineer, ensuring everything runs smoothly with every Continuum release (and all our other products!). He also supports licensing and public-facing servers as well as ML training.
Boris FX Continuum Emmy Reel
Boris: The experience of receiving an Emmy Award for the product I coded initially by myself in my parents' basement was humbling and exhilarating at the same time. It brought back memories of the early days of the company, the people who worked with me, the early successes with the business, users, partners, and the emerging NLE market in general.
I was lucky to start a new company and a new product at a time when the entire NLE industry was just being born, when the users were eager for any new product idea that would help them replace the familiar linear (tape-based) equipment and allow them to produce broadcast-quality programming on their computer systems, often at home or in small offices. The early success of Boris FX motivated other developers to create their own products, and this is how the plugin market we all know today was born.
Peter: Winning an Emmy Award was a truly wonderful experience and something I never expected! It was so cool to share the stage with all of the other Emmy winners and to stand on the black carpet for photos. I'm truly grateful to the Academy for this tremendous award and to our customers' continued input, which has helped shape Continuum into what it is today. And, of course, I remain forever grateful to Boris for believing in me back in 1999 and for bringing me along on this incredible and amazing journey.
Jason: Surreal! Moving! Thrilling! As an engineer, I spend my days typing away in a quiet, dark office, so to be on stage under the bright lights was quite the moment. More than anything, I was deeply proud of our team. This award would not have been possible without our fantastic engineering, testing, and design talents. It would not have been possible without the teams across the company that support us in delivering our best possible products. The award really belongs to all of them.
Oh, and my wife and I hadn’t been away from the kids for more than a weekend in 21 years, so that was pretty sweet! And a shout out to the award show’s sign language interpreter — what a flood of technical jargon they had to race through!
Carrying an Emmy box home in carry-on luggage was a trip. We were the last ones off the plane, and the flight attendant said, “Looks like a treasure chest.” So we popped the lid, and he squealed — and then carefully stretched out a single fingertip for a touch.
Mike: It felt great to have the wider community recognize Continuum and its long-lasting impact! In the context of all the other awards, it feels like a good fit, as you step back and see how they all contribute to the industry.
Boris: Continuum was born out of necessity to provide high-quality DVE and visual effects for NLE and computer-based compositing systems. It has come a long way since its first release as the industry's first NLE plug-in for Media 100 and Adobe Premiere. Before starting Boris FX, I worked as a programmer at Media 100, and I was also acquainted with Randy Ubilos, the original creator of Adobe Premiere. I had a pretty good sense of what NLE early adopters needed.
With over 300 different effects and filters, Continuum literally covers every need of an editor on a tight schedule who can not afford to outsource any work to a graphics or compositing department. Today, Continuum remains true to its origins by addressing every important editing and compositing need in Avid, Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, Vegas, Filmora, Final Cut, and many other editors. It is like having a specialist compositing package built right into your timeline.
I always say that the history of Boris FX is the history of NLEs because from the start, Boris FX strived to support every NLE system of the day without exception. We believe that every potential customer is extremely valuable to the company, and every customer, regardless of the NLE they use at the moment, deserves our attention. We were never just an Adobe plugin or just a Final Cut plugin. We did not pick and choose but supported them all. This differentiates us from other plugin companies, which support some platforms but avoid others.
Hugo Ayala, left, Mike Escola, Jason Clement, and Peter McAuley at the reception following the 77th Engineering, Science & Technology Emmy Awards on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, at the Television Academy’s Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for The Television Academy/AP Images)
Boris: Unlimited opportunities. The Media and Entertainment market rapidly evolves due to increasing production volumes, streaming consumption, and growing demand for content. All this growth is very positive for the product, as ubiquitous as Continuum. Whether the post-production work is done in Avid, Adobe, or another system, Continuum is an integral part of that toolset.
AI opens new horizons and new possibilities. I’ve been involved in VFX software development for over 30 years, and I’m blown away by some of the results produced by AI models. Things that are so hard to achieve with traditional DSP (Digital Signal Processing) or Computer Vision techniques are surprisingly fast and easy with AI.
Peter: The future of Continuum is bright! We're focused on bringing more AI technology into Continuum and on continuing our efforts to develop new and exciting software products that ease the workflow for artists and editors everywhere.
Jason: We are constantly boiling over with fresh ideas for new and improved effects. There is nothing more fun than working on the next new effect! Combined with the explosion of new machine learning tools, we are finding thrilling new ways to solve some of our most stubborn problems and deliver workflows we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. With our eyes squarely focused on the needs of our users — the foundation of everything we do — it is going to be an exciting ride!
Boris: From the start, Boris FX has been very user-centric. Every relationship goes both ways. Our users have consistently provided extensive feedback through large-scale beta programs. We've repaid the favor by implementing the requested features in every release. I’m very thankful for the goodwill and dedication of many customers who helped us shape our products over the years.
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